Japanese Federation of the Deaf starts the earthquake rescue operation

To straighten the rescue system for the Deaf refuge affected by the Tohoku North Kanto coast earthquake, the Japanese Federation of the Deaf set up "East Japan great earthquake rescue Deaf center headquarters".

The headquarters, composed by JFD, the National Study Society for the Interpreter and the Japanese sign language interpreter society, held the first meeting in Tokyo on March 18.

Concerned officials from the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare attended it as an observer. Also 38 representatives in total from 12 cooperation groups were present.

They conferred on a systematic, concrete activity based on the clerical work summary and the report. Among the agenda, the following items were confirmed.

- Check the local community in the affected prefectures, and decide a concrete supporting method and local support base.

- Information necessary for local Deaf refuges is collected and posted in the JFD website.

- List up specialists on the mental caring of the Deaf refuges for their mental care and support, and make dispatch coordination plans, etc.

The National League of Associations of Hard of Hearing and Deafened also has took action to support the HoH/D in the disaster-affected prefectures.